I've been away for a while, but that doesn't mean I haven't been training. Since the nine mile run I last reported on I have done a 17-mile, another 9-mile and this past Monday I did the longest run I ever have done, 20 miles. I am really feeling good about doing my marathon in February, especially since I have been sitting here tonight watching Running The Sahara where these three runners ran across the entire Sahara desert. As I watch they are on day 111 and about 30 miles from the finish at the Red Sea. It is incredible that they ran over two marathons a day for 111 days across the most forbidding landscape imaginable. So now it is over - 170 marathons without a day off! And I am worried about one little 26 mile run. I really think I can do this. I am just amazed though at what the human body can endure if the mental ducks are all in a row. Back to my training. Next week ends with a 5K or 8-10 miles, two week it's 8-9 miles, in three weeks another 5K or 8-10 miles then in four weeks 22-23 miles. Then a couple of short weeks before doing one last long run of 24-26 miles and then a couple of weeks of tapering to the marathon. That's a lot of miles! Although it doesn't seem like it after watching Running The Sahara. What I discovered doing the 20 mile run this week is that over 4 hours of running is not easy. Should I be surprised at that? The last 3-5 miles everything was definitely hurting but I found that I could get my self into a mental state that just allowed me to keep going regardless. Actually, it wasn't so much as 'getting myself into a mental state' as it was talking to God about the possibility that he could make it hurt just a little less. I spent quite a bit of time during the run talking to Him about how much I appreciated Him giving this old man the ability to enjoy something as much as I do running. I am so thankful that He has not only given me good health but He has kept me from any serious injuries that would preclude me continuing. I am blessed to be a runner

'Short' long run

So tomorrow I get to do 9 miles. It is no small thing for me to realize that in my training this is a 'short' long run. I can still remember when 9 miles was a long run period. Thank you God for giving me the strength and ability to do what I do

Today is a cross training.......

day in my marathon training program. So I decided to go for a hike in Hart Park. My wife and daughter were off on a girls day so it was just me. So I grabbed my hydration day pack, put a sandwich and something to drink in it and headed out. It was a sunny morning but not too warm as yet. I got to my favorite parking place by the sheriffs shooting range. There were quite a few cars there already, typical of a Saturday morning at Hart Park. I could tell that there were mountain bikers as well as hikers and runners. I come here all the time and have favorite routes that I run but today I decided to just take off walking and find some different trails. I headed up the hill that is the start of the Mr Toads Wild Run. This hill climbs for about 1 mile before it levels out and forks off to the left. I stayed straight ahead since I had never been that way before. The trail went through a series of ups and downs, typical of Hart Park in general. At one point I saw a coyote cross the trail ahead of me and trot off into the grass. I stopped to watch him, he stopped for a moment to see what I was going to do then continued off on his way. I wound around hillocks, down into gullies and back up, trying to work my way towards the highest peak, one I had ascended many times before. At about 4 miles I stopped and ate my lunch while enjoying the views. After leaving my lunch stop I was able to have a conversation with a mountain biker, Doc, who told me he was mapping all the trails in Hart Park and that they would be available for download soon. That was exciting news since it is very difficult to find your way around these acres and acres of hills and trails. I only hiked about 2.5 miles getting back to my car.

I've been away for a while,......

not from running by any means, but from my blog. Sometimes I feel like writing, sometimes I just can't wait to get to my keyboard and write and sometimes that's just the last thing I want to do and before I know it several days have gone by. So running is my passion, there, I've said it! I run so I can eat, but I also run because I can. God has been very good to me and allowed me to keep running well in to my 60's relatively injury free. When I was in college I had a shin splint. About 10 years ago while training for a marathon I injured my Achilles tendon. I have fallen while trail running several times and bruised my ribs on one of them. That's it - not bad considering I have been running a lot since my 30's. I do have some arthritis in my left knee which flares up now and then but I am having a blast. Some of you may know that I have finally decided to run a marathon. In fact, I will probably run two marathons on the same day - my first and my last. So, you ask, how is my training going. I am running three days a week, two short runs and a long run. I do yoga and Spin classes in between and throw in a little swimming when I can. I am doing my long runs on Mondays instead of the traditional Sunday so that I can spend Sunday with my wife and my church. So, Monday I was scheduled to do between 15 and 16 miles. I plotted out a course for 15.6 miles and did my checklist. Shirt, shorts, shoes - check. Garmin, Gymboss, iPod, hydration pack - check. Fanny pack, wallet, phone - check. Put em on, strap em on, load em up and out the door at 7:40 a.m. Set GymBoss for 2 min run/1 min walk intervals. As I head out through the neighborhood my legs feel a bit stiff, my ankle creaks a couple of times, my knee twinges and by the end of mile 1 I am settling into it. It's a nice cool morning, so even though I am in shorts and t-shirt I included my skull cap to keep my bald head warm. Down White Lane, right on to Old River, right on Stockdale until I get to Cal State University where I get on to the bike path. Warming up so I take off my skull cap and stuff it into my fanny pack. Lot of runners, walkers and bikers using the bike path this morning, most of whom give a friendly wave or at least a head bob as we pass. Turning on Mohawk I am still feeling really good. I am thinking, I could do this all day long! I am cruisin', feeling strong and powerful when I get to California. I stop at the intersection and push the button for the cross-walk. The car on my left is waiting behind the cross-walk and when the pedestrian light goes on I step into the intersection. I take two steps and the car on the left decides to go through without even looking to his right. Uh-oh, car/pedestrian collision occurs. Fortunately I run into him instead of the other way around. I give him the ol' whats up gesture, he apologizes profusely and drives away. No harm done, let's go. Everything was good until about mile 12 when suddenly my left knee starts hurting. I walk a bit, run a bit and work through it and am able to finish off strong. Dang, I don't feel like I just ran 15.6 miles. Woo hoo! Tomorrow, recovery run.

I'll say it again, it is much easier......

to run when the weather is cool. I took off today at about noon from a ranch where I visit in Paso Robles, in the heart of the beautiful Central Coast wine country. The temp was in the 60 deg range. It was misting lightly so I figured I might get rained on. I wore a tech t-shirt and my long running pants, strapped on my 4-bottle hydration belt with my phone, i.d. and insurance cards tucked safely inside and down the road I went. The first 5.2 miles was down Creston Rd, two lanes with a decent shoulder but very fast traffic. I decided to do 3 min run/1 min walk intervals so my GymBoss timer was set accordingly. I really cruised along this section and reached the intersection with Hwy 41 where I turned right. Relatively level still with just some gentle rolling hills. 2 miles along Hwy 41 then right on Cripple Creek Rd, then about a mile to El Pomar Rd where I hung a left. To this point it was mostly level. El Pomar Rd though has some pretty good hills for the next 3 miles. Some were gentle, and then there were some that were a little more challenging. At about 3 miles I turned right on to S El Pomar Rd. I knew that the hills would not be as significant from this point on so I changed from 3 and 1's to 7 and 1's. I was still feeling really strong so I figured I could take it all the way in. It was about 1 1/2 miles up to Creston Rd, right on Creston and then another 1 1/2 back to the ranch. I was really cookin' along. I checked my half-marathon split at 2:33, not bad considering my PR is 2:15. I pulled in to the ranch feeling really good, although my legs definitely felt used I had no pain issues with my normal trouble spots, left knee, groin or piriformis muscles. My only issue is that I realized that even if I was able to hold that pace (11:39 per mile) that a marathon would be almost 6 hours. Bummer. But I will soldier on!

When I run......

I have a hard time wanting to keep going. What? Could that be true? Yes, sometimes it is. It's interesting because I really love to run. I can get into a groove where I feel like I can just go forever. Then I get to a point, generally towards the end of a longer run, that my body just wants to stop. It has nothing to do with my breathing hard or my heart beating too fast. That doesn't happen. It's just that my body wants to stop. I can usually push through it just fine and I am always glad I did because one thing I hate is to not finish what I started. This concerns me because my longest run ever is about 16 1/2 miles and I am wanting to do a marathon, 26.2 miles. I battle with myself all the time, how am I going to continue to increase my long runs when I have such a hard time every time I get up to 9 or 10 miles. One thing I know, I am not going to blame it on my age or tell myself I can't do it. I can do it. Now I just have to convince myself that I want it bad enough.

Now thats more like it!!

I did an intermediate length run, 6.2 miles in under 11 min pace. I know that doesn't sound fast to some of you, but for this guy it is just fine thank you very much. I still want to keep working at it so that I can get my 10K under 1 hour, but that will require a sub-10 min pace. It helped that it was about 10° cooler than what I had been running in, so maybe once fall gets here for good I will be able to start doing some faster times. This run was completely flat, a loop run from my house. It was pretty close to dark by the time I returned. I was just getting to the final turn for the one-block finishing kick to my house when a couple of dogs decided to come over and play. No barking, no aggressiveness, they just ran back and forth in front of me abd bumped into me more than once. I was trying to keep them from tripping me up. Given my proclivity for falling it wouldn't have taken much more. On a different note I am leaning towards going for a marathon. I will have to concentrate mostly on my running but I really think I want to do this. My longest run of late is about 11 miles, so I have a ways to go.

I want to be a runner but.......

I am finding that I need to make a decision as to what that means. Running is an important part of my life and I hope to be able to continue until my last day on earth. (shooting for 100 years!) There are two directions I can go. I can set goals to run races I haven't yet done, such as a full marathon or a 50K trail race. I have two half-marathons under my belt, one 25K trail race and too many to count shorter races including 15K's, 10-milers, 10K's and 5K's. To reach these longer goals would require a lot of training, at least 3 or 4 runs a week. I would need to curtail some of my other fitness activities to avoid over training. Not sure I would want to do that. My other alternative is make the decision that running a marathon or a 50K don't really need to be done. I can do my Spin classes, walk,hike, practice yoga and do a nice long run on the weekend and enjoy it all. There's also cycling which I haven't done for a couple of years. My nice Trek 1000 is up on the stand and just begging to go for a ride. So maybe it doesn't have to be all about the running. Now I know that there is a danger in choosing the second alternative. I could just be 'wimping' out and may always regret never having done a marathon. I don't think I am quite ready to make a decision yet.

Cool running along the bluffs......

north of Cayucos is such a change from running the streets of Bakersfield. The morning was cool as the fog was still in along the California Central Coast. The trail runs right along the bluffs about 50' above the beach below. I was told that it was about 4 miles to where the trail comes up to a rock pile and ends. I started out running with Ginger and Debbie. The others planned on walking on this day, except for Bill, but he didn't start running right away, but rather walked with the others. Debbie set a real nice pace for us up to two miles where they decided to turn around. I wanted to do another mile out before I turned around so I continued on. I was running so comfortably, my knee wasn't hurting and I felt like I could run forever. This trail gies you options to take cutoffs along the way that get even closer to the edge of the bluffs and dip deeply into gullies and back up. I took everyone of them just because it was fun. I got to the bottom of a hill and my GPS said three miles, so I turned around and headed back. Not sure why I didn't continue on, I just had in my mind six miles. Later, I regretted not continuing on. About 1/2 mile after I turned around Bill came by going the other direction. He looked really good. He ended up going all the way to the end of the trail so ended up with and 8 mile run, albeit he did walk probably the first couple of miles. Soon I passed the rest of the group as they were still walking north as I ran south headed for the finish line. I got to the finish and decided to turn around and keep running back until I met up with Dani and Kim. So that's what I did, ran about 1/2 mile and met up with them and walked back to the finish with them. This run really makes me wish I lived at the coast all the time so I could enjoy these kind of runs more often. More on my running future in another post.

789 ft of elevation gain and 100°........

came in to play on my 5.4 mile run. Best I could do was 1:06:27 for the 5.4 mile run, but when you consider the hills and the temperature that really wasn't so bad. I felt really strong and didn't do any walking, other than short stints while taking a drink of water. I started from the ranch gate on Stagecoach Rd. This course heads up hill right from the start. 1/2 mile to the top of Stagecoach Rd then left on to High Ridge Rd for another 1/4 mile before it finally levels out a bit. From there it is 3/4 mile of up and down sections to the end of High Ridge. Returning the 3/4 mile to Stagecoach Rd I go left where I get a steep downhill for about 1/2 mile, then rolling ups and downs along Windmill Rd to a 1/4 mile ascent to the turn-around at Thistle Rd. Then repeat the rolling ups and downs, the 1/2 mile ascent up Stagecoach Rd then downhill 1/2 mile and back to the ranch. I love running these hills. And if I want to do a longer run I have several choices that can include some of these hills as well as some beautiful narrow roads winding through the vineyards and the cattle ranches. A little slice of heaven right here in Central California

Running with a dog....

is different. You can't run as fast because you have to be aware at all times of where the dog is. Willow is really good at staying right by my side and not trying to pull or lag behind. But she stays so close to me that I have to be careful she doesn't trip me up. She is a real joy to run with though. She seems tireless, she could probably do much longer runs. I took water and offered it to her a couple of times, but she didn't want any she just wanted to keep going. Lot's of other dogs along the way greeted us as we ran by and though she turned her head and looked their way, she did not try to pull over to them. She was interested in the deer that ran across the road in a couple of places but again she stayed mostly focused on continuing her forward progress, much to my delight. Of course my time was slower than normal, but that is ok - it was all about putting in the miles and having a great time with my canine friend Willow

I think I overdid......

it a little bit today. I went out to do 11 miles and it was only 76° so I thought it would be perfect day for a long run. By the time I got to around 7 miles it had gotten quite a bit warmer and I was really getting tired. I started doing 2 min run/1 min walk and I was drinking a lot of water but it was just HARD. At about 9 miles my left knee suddenly started acting up and it became really difficult to even walk on it, so I called my wife and had her pick me up at mile 10. I wonder if I should just give up my long runs completely. I still haven't run a marathon, which is something I have always wanted to do, but maybe releasing myself from that goal would not be a bad thing. I would still run of course, I don't think I could ever give it up completely. I have a lot of thinking to do.

Yesterdays triathlon got a little messed up

I got to the gym about 8:45, my usual plan being to hit the pool about 9:00 so that I would be done with my 750 meter swim by the time Spin class started at 9:30. I have been doing this every Thursday for a few weeks so I was expecting no problem. Not so much. Someone had decided to schedule a new water aerobics class on Thursday mornings! So I get to the pool and it was full of people and no lap lanes. Really tilted my axis! So, after taking a few yoga breaths I decided to just change it up, do the Spin class first, then hit the pool and finish with the 5K run. After all, nothing says I have to do them in order. Actually had a really good time although I didn't get the overall time with transitions because I forgot to wear my Polar. I know I did the 12 mile bike in 26:32, the 750 meter swim in about 23 minutes and the 5K in 31:30. I'll take it!

I was hoping to run a little faster......

tonight, after all it was only going to be about 5 miles. As I settled into a groove I really felt like I might be able to run under 10 min miles, I really felt good. I didn't do any walking since it was a short run and I thought I was running a quick pace. It was 95° as I left the house, a bit warm but cooler than it had been. As I rounded the corner from Ming on to Westholme I picked up the pace a bit and felt like I might actually do it. Not. 57:29, 10:42 pace. Oh well, it's not about the speed, it's about doing the miles. I feel good.

I wasn't sure I felt like.....

running 10 miles today, but I told my daughter that if she was going to train to run the Route 66 Marathon in November in Tulsa, that I would try to train along with her here in California, even though I may or may not actually run a marathon myself. Today's Gos long run was scheduled at 10 miles and Lisa did her yesterday so I was up. I took off from the house about 11:45 after a really good church service. The temperature was in the mid 80's, not too bad for summer in Bakersfield. As I began to stretch out my legs I immediately realized that I was not as sore as I usually am at the beginning of a run. It generally takes me a couple of miles to work out the various pains in my butt, legs and abdomen, but today those issues didn't exist. I still maintained my plan though of run 3 minutes, walk 1 minute for the first 4 miles until I got to the bike path. I ran the 1.5 miles of the bike path at a pretty good pace until I got to Gosford Rd where I resumed my 3 & 1's. I was also breaking in a new hydration pack on this run. About half way through the run I started sucking air when I went to take a drink, then when I let the hose dangle back down it was dripping on my shirt - very annoying! Before I got too annoyed, I realized that the drinking tip was threaded onto the end of the hose. As soon as I tightened it up, problem solved. So I did my 10 miles in 1 hr, 53 minutes. Not bad, but probably could have been faster in cooler weather. At the end of it, I really didn't feel as if I had just run 10 miles. Of course, a little later, after sitting at my computer for 30 minutes it was a bit difficult getting up and moving. But couldn't let that stop me, still had gardening to do.

Yoga and a run

Did my weekly Wednesday yoga class this morning with Lauren. I felt pretty strong during this class except that just overall muscle soreness made it uncomfortable on some of the bending over poses. I was able to get Lauren to help me after class figure out what I was doing wrong on triangle pose. I was having a difficult time transferring my weight to my back foot, she fixed it. Tonight I felt the need for some good cardio. After trying to decide between a Spin class or going for a run I decided, hey I'm a runner, running is what I do. So off I went on a 4.4 mile run. Except I took a wrong turn and ended up doing 5.5 miles instead. It was good though. Ran some pole to pole surges along White Lane and worked at keeping my pace faster than my normal. Overall pace was 10:27. I was disappointed, I really felt faster than that. That's ok, the main thing is to put in the miles. But I would like to learn to run faster. If I could get under 10 min pace for 5 miles I would be happy with that. It's been a long time since I have been able to run 10K under an hour

Not really a triathlon

Although I did sorta do all three disciplines. OK Chuck, explain. I started with a great Spin class with Condy. This is one class I do during the week that I least like to miss. Condy is high energy and leads a really challenging ride week after week. Today I only totalled 45 minutes, 15.3 miles. Usually if I am doing only Spin I will stay on the bike and try to get 1 hour or 20 miles whichever comes first.

Off the bike and to the pool. I did it a little differently than what I usually do. I usually just swim 500 or 750 meters and call it good. Today I wanted to try some aqua jogging. So what I did was do a 250 meter swim followed by 250 meters of aqua jogging. I did 4 rounds of each giving me 1000 meters of swimming and 1000 meters of pool running. This took me about 55 minutes. So total of about 1 hr 40 minutes, about what it takes me to do my weekly triathlon when I count in the transition times.

I feel like I got a great overall workout with these activities today. I really want to keep including the pool running a part of my regular swim days. Although aqua jogging is used primarily for keeping in condition while recovering from an injury I think it can be an important part of any training plan. I will do a little more research and maybe do a post just on pool running, or aqua jogging.

Labrador walk

Today I went for a walk, by myself ostensibly. I ended up being followed by Cujo, a beautiful black Lab. After finally getting him back to his owner I finished my walk to Starbucks, 2.2 miles in 35 minutes carrying a 15 lb pack. After doing some writing and Facebooking at Starbucks I walked back home in 33 minutes. Why did I walk and not run? Not sure. I enjoy walking, but I worry that I am not running enough. Enough for what? Not sure about that either. I know that if I ever want to do a marathon I am going to have to pick up the miles. But I am afraid that if I start putting in more miles, I may have to cut back on my Spinning, swimming etc. Certainly I can't dream of a 50K trail race or an Olympic triathlon unless I kick it into another gear. But I'm 66, what can I expect?

Fast 5K?

I rested well yesterday, went to church this morning, took in a movie, did some easy shopping and, well, rested. So by this evening I decided I needed to go for a run. I knew better than to try a long one at this point, so I decided to do 5K and try for speed. It's been a long time since I have done a 5K race so it needed to be seen. Fortunately the temperature was down from the high 100's to a reasonable 89 when I took off at about 6:30. Things didn't start out so well as I wasn't 5 minutes out and my GPS died. Fortunately I had looked at my watch just before I left so I knew that I had left at 6:28 straight up, so at least I would know my time. I was running a course that I had run many times before so I knew the distance was accurate. The good thing was that I was feeling really strong. I ran a strong pace for the first 10 minutes or so, then slowed down a bit to save for a strong finish. I had to stop for traffic lights twice, once for 37 seconds and once for 20 seconds. As I turned on to Edgemont, about .5 mile to go I was able to pick up my pace and finished in 28:28, a 9:10 pace. I would like to be able to get that under 9:00. Maybe with the adrenaline of an actual race I would have been under 9:00 Bottom line, I feel good about the run and can't wait till the next one!

One thing I have learned, although like yesterday I tend to forget at times, is the value of an athlete taking rest days. Accordingly, I am taking today as a rest day. We will see how I feel on Sunday, I may go for a hike if I feel rested enough.

8 mile run on day after triathlon

Probably shouldn't have done that. Today I was supposed to take a rest day, except for my yoga class in the morning. About 1:00 I decided I really wanted to go for a long run, 8 miles to be precise. The thermometer in my office said 89 deg which didn't sound too bad. So I strapped on my Camelback and my GPS and took off. I made the first three miles doing pretty well, but then started doing some walk breaks. It really felt hotter than 89 and I was thankful for the full Camelback of water. By the time I got to Planz Rd, about 4 miles in I could barely do more than walk. Essentially I was walking almost the last 4 miles of my 'run'. My lower abdomen is hurting, my inner thigh muscles are sore and my glutes are sore. I will definitely need to rest for a couple of days. It's hard to accept that my body just doesn't react like it did when i was 30. It takes me longer to recover from hard workouts. I have been reading Scott Jurek's book Eat and Run where he talks about how the vegan way of eating has given him more energy and enabled him to recover much faster than when he was eating animal protein. Sure Scott, that's just great for you, but you are not 66 yrs old!!

Yoga class

I am finally getting back into yoga class. It has been difficult because instructors at my gym keep changing and it is difficult to find an instructor who you like, who does the kind of practice that gives you what you need. I like a class that gives me time to enjoy the pose, get the benefit of the stretch. Some yoga classes move through poses so quickly it is more cardio based. I get plenty of cardio elsewhere. I want soft music and a gentle voice to lead me through a series of pose that leave me feeling stretched and relaxed. I also like the challenge to try something new once in a while. Hopefully I have found that with this instructor.

Foam roller - yes!!

Tonight I did about 20 mins using the foam roller on my thighs and calves. It really lessened the pain I was experiencing with my piriformis syndrome. I think I need to put this into my regular training plan, maybe I will be able to sit for longer periods of time without aching and burning in my piriformis and along my sciatic nerve.

Triathlon time again

For several weeks now I have been doing a triathlon every week on Thursday. I do them on my own at the gym - 1/2 mile in the swimming pool, 12 miles on the Spin bike and then a 5K run. I couldn't help but notice though that at the San Luis Obispo 'sprint' triathlon the bike portion was 16 miles, so I may change to that distance. At any rate I did my triathlon today and felt pretty good about it. When I do these I wear my Polar heart rate watch throughout the entire triathlon so that I get an overall time which includes my transitions. When I go out for the run I also put on my Garmin 305 GPS so that I have accurate numbers for the run. This requires me to remember my time when I get out of the pool and my time on the bike, maybe I had better start using a notebook, at 66 I sometimes have a little difficulty with my short term memory! OK, here is the hard part. My hips are sore, I have a hard time bending over and getting back up without pain. I get twinges in my lower abs, I have piriformis syndrome on my right side. Basically, I hurt like an old man. I don't want to hurt like an old man, but as my wife reminded me recently, I have to realize that I am not 30 any more. That's fine, I can live with it. I know that if I just get back into a regular routine of yoga and using my foam roller I can probably work it out. So, give up my weekly routine of running, Spinning, hiking etc? - not on your life!